They have been taking over manual roles and replacing workers on factory production lines for decades, but robots might soon be doing the jobs of white collar workers too.

A survey of workplace managers has suggested that the world depicted in the hit TV series Humans, where the lines between technology and people are increasingly blurred, could become a reality.

It found 70 per cent of managers would consider using a robot on their team and almost half would not feel bad about replacing a human job with a robot.

In the TV series Humans, the lines between robots and people are blurred (a still from the series is shown above with Gemma Chan, left, as a android robot). A survey of senior managers suggests robots may become increasingly common in the work place as they would like them to take over office jobs like administration

The survey, conducted by Expert Market, comes as recent developments in Artificial Intelligence have triggered warnings from leading scientists of the threat the technology poses.

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While creative jobs such as marketing and design were seen as been unsuitable for robots, office managers, finance roles and IT were areas where managers felt they may play a role.

SHOULD ROBOTS HAVE RIGHTS?

A legal expert has warned the laws governing robotics are playing catch-up to the technology and need to be updated in case robots 'wake up' and demand rights.

He also argues that artificial intelligence has come of age, and that we should begin tackling these problems before they arise, as robots increasingly blur the line between person and machine.

'Robotics combines, for the first time, the promiscuity of data with the capacity to do physical harm,' Ryan Calo, from the University of Washington’s School of Law, wrote in his paper on the subject.

'Robotic systems accomplish tasks in ways that cannot be anticipated in advance; and robots increasingly blur the line between person and instrument.'

Most feel machines would be better placed to perform roles like administration, answering the telephone, emailing and writing reports.

They listed among the benefits of having a robot on the staff included that they would produce a consistent standard of work, they would not take sick days or leave the company.

A spokesman for Expert Market, a business to business marketplace, said: ‘The results suggest that most people are quite comfortable with the idea of working alongside robots.

‘A lot of managers were not overly worried about swapping their workforce for machines, as almost half of those asked said they would not feel guilty for hiring a machine over a human.

‘Perhaps in order to stay “future proof” it might be worth brushing up on those design skills.’

The survey asked 200 senior managers in a range of industries about their attitudes towards robots and automation.

In many industries, robots have been used increasingly to speed up production lines and provide a consistent quality of work.

However, earlier this month a rogue robot killed a technician at a car factory after he was picked up and crushed by an automated arm.

Some jobs were seen as being more suitable for robots than others, such as office manager, IT and finance but not creative roles or senior positions. In the film Chappie, staring Hugh Jackman, (shown above) a robots have taken over many jobs including that of the police

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 'AS DANGEROUS AS NUCLEAR WEAPONS'

Artificial intelligence has the potential to be as dangerous to mankind as nuclear weapons, a leading pioneer of the technology has claimed.

Professor Stuart Russell, a computer scientist who has lead research on artificial intelligence, fears humanity might be 'driving off a cliff' with the rapid development of AI.

He fears the technology could too easily be exploited for use by the military in weapons, putting them under the control of AI systems.

His views echo those of people like Elon Musk who have warned recently about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Professor Stephen Hawking also joined a group of leading experts to sign an open letter warning of the need for safeguards to ensure AI has a positive impact on mankind.

Dr Stuart Armstrong, from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, has also predicted that intelligent robots could soon take over the running of countries.

He believes it’s a race against time to develop safeguards around artificial intelligence research, before robots outwit us.

Professor Hawking has said: 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.'

The death is thought to be the first in Europe to be caused by an industrial robot and has chilling overtones of a science fiction movie.

In films such as AI, for example, many jobs are performed by robots, allowing the human population more time for leisure until the robot begin to malfunction while in the hit TV series Humans, life-like androids used as household servants but become increasingly difficult to control.

According to the survey, most managers would prefer robots to look like a machine rather than human-like, but 68% said they would like one to help free up their own time.

Senior positions like chief executives were seen as been unsuitable for robots, but 52 per cent said they would use robots to do the jobs of office managers, 44 per cent said robots could do IT and 28 per cent said finance was suitable.

Only 15 per cent of those questioned were worried about robots taking over the world.

The roles that managers believed robots could perform are shown above, with administration and answering the phone seen as the most likely, along with typing, emailing and report writing

The managers were asked what the key benefits of using a robot in the workplace would be, with most saying the machines would not take a day of sick and would do things to a consistent standard (shown above)